By Karin Hiebaum
International Correspondent
Tech billionaire Elon Musk closed the deal to buy Twitter on Monday. The Tesla boss is taking over the short messaging service for $44 billion (just under 41 billion euros). There is a «definitive agreement» for the acquisition. As announced by the company on Monday, Musk will pay $54.20 per Twitter share. The company will then cease trading on the stock exchange.
Musk, whose fortune is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars, had recently made an offer to buy all the shares of the short messaging service. The 50-year-old argued that he wanted to delist Twitter because it was the only way the service could realize its potential as a platform for free speech.
He had also previously justified the purchase by saying that he wanted to ensure free speech on Twitter. Musk now stated that he wanted to make Twitter «better than ever.» The platform is the «digital village square where the central questions of the future of humanity are debated.» To that end, he wants to offer new features, make the short message service’s algorithms public to «increase trust» and «defeat» spambots. It also announced the «authentication of all people» – which would mean in concrete terms remains open for the time being.
Open privacy settings: show social networks in full.
????????♥️ Yes!!!! ♥️???????? pic.twitter.com/0T9HzUHuh6
- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
The company defended itself
CEO Bret Taylor said the board had concluded after a «careful and thorough» review that an acquisition by Musk was «the best path forward for Twitter shareholders.» The company had previously resisted an acquisition.
Musk had announced in early April that he had been quietly buying a stake of just over 9% in Twitter for weeks. Then events were precipitated. The first thing Musk did was to join Twitter’s board of directors. But this would have been conditional on the Tesla boss not increasing his Twitter stake above 15%.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk
AP/Hannibal Hanschke
Musk himself is among the most influential Twitter users
Instead, he turned down the board seat and announced his intention to buy the company. The board of directors then introduced a countermeasure whereby other shareholders can buy cheaper shares as soon as the stake of an attacker like Musk exceeds 15%. At the same time, Twitter generally reserved the right to accept a deal.
Open privacy settings: Show social networks in full.
I hope even my worst critics are still on Twitter, because that’s what free speech is all about
- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
Last week, the 50-year-old company disclosed commitments for $25.5 billion in loans and also plans to place about $21 billion in equity. Musk is by far the richest person in the world. But his fortune is made up almost entirely of shares in Tesla and his space company SpaceX, which is why he also had to resort to loans for the purchase of Twitter.
Active user with enormous influence
Musk is one of the most active prominent users of Twitter and has some 83 million followers. His tweets have repeatedly driven stock and cryptocurrency prices up and down in the past, which has already brought him into confrontation with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He announced that he would make Twitter a «global platform for free speech.»
There have been countless controversies surrounding the power of Twitter in recent years, not least because former U.S. President Donald Trump has used the channel extensively. In light of Musk’s plans, critics had feared that the Tesla boss might restrict content moderation after the acquisition, for example in the fight against hate messages and the spread of misinformation. There was also recent speculation that he might allow Trump to return to the platform.
Hopes for growth
At the same time, investors remain hopeful that billionaire Musk can help Twitter grow profitably. In recent years, Twitter has repeatedly disappointed with its user and revenue figures. Reports of a possible impending deal had sent Twitter’s stock price sharply higher ahead of Monday’s announcement,before the New York Stock Exchange temporarily suspended trading in the securities.
Twitter, founded in 2006, quickly became something of a nervous system in the news industry. At the end of November, co-founder Jack Dorsey had announced his resignation as chief executive. He had been succeeded by former chief technology officer Parag Agrawal, the San Francisco-based company announced.
red, ORF.at/agencies
Link:
Musk on Twitter
Por Karin Hiebaum
Profesora universitaria,
psicóloga y corresponsal en Europa
Esta y otras noticias en nuestro canal de Telegram TFPOficial; siguenos tambien por Instagram thefreedompost_
